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Meet the EWB team: Samantha Garvin

Written By: admin on August 7, 2016 No Comment

“On the count of three, everyone pull!” yelled the wildlife vet. “He’s very heavy, and it will all be dead weight, eh.”

He counted, and I, along with eight strong men and women hauled the 6 month-old elephant calf into the back of the pick up truck. We were in the process of taking it to where an elephant herd had last been seen in the wildlife corridor just down the road. The calf had been cut off from its mother when the baby slipped into a lodge’s fenced campground. The calf spent hours pacing the fence, calling to its family to try to get out.

Holding the satellite unit, as the EWB team fits a monitoring collar on an elephant cow

Earlier that afternoon, the Elephants Without Borders (EWB) team was called to the scene by the lodge staff who feared for the safety of the calf as well as their guests. I have had the great fortune of conducting my research on human-elephant interactions with EWB this summer, and so I tagged along to see how I could help. I stood with the wildlife officers of Department of Wildlife and National Parks and watched as the lodge staff knocked down the fence and cut the barbed wire to try to let the calf out. But no sooner was the fence down that we realized, even if the calf walked over the fence, he would meet another fence in the plot next door. It hit me that this was the consequence of development in the town of Kasane: with growing human populations, new lodge developments, and more fences going up, the wildlife movements are being constrained, and as a result this calf was stuck with only one plausible way out. This calf would have to be transported to the wildlife corridor where he could hopefully reconnect with his family.

While helping out with this activity was useful for me to observe EWB in a time of crisis, it was a good example of the kinds of human-wildlife interactions that the people of Chobe District must decide how to deal with on a daily basis. Kasane is unique in that it is a place where people and wildlife are living together. In other cities in Botswana, fences prevent any wildlife movement, but in Kasane, you are likely to see troops of mongoose burrowing in drainage ditches, warthogs foraging in parking lots, and elephants crossing the roads. The prevalence of wildlife comes at a cost, though, for both humans and wildlife. Every year a few people lose their lives due to interactions with elephants and an unknown amount of wildlife are hit by cars, poisoned, or killed in conflict or for illegal activities.

It is not uncommon for traffic to be held up by elephants crossing the roads in the area

I am here to research the decision-making process around human-wildlife interactions, looking at the policies and interviewing decision-makers to see how they see the challenges and benefits of living with wildlife. I have spoken to community members, government officials, NGOs, local leaders, religious leaders, and participants from the private sector to hear their takes on these issues and gather their recommended solutions. One reoccurring huge theme that has been expressed is the importance of land use planning. EWB has been instrumental in designating wildlife corridors in town that connect elephants and many other species from the Forest Reserve and Chobe National Park to the Chobe River. Moving forward, Kasane will need to maintain and protect these pathways so that there is still space for wildlife to access resources here and to alleviate potential escalated conflict.

One of the farmers explains how he uses chilli peppers to deter elephants from his crops

In addition to the interviews I have conducted, I have also had the amazing opportunity to observe many of EWB’s activities: from collaring elephants to monitoring their movements; to participating in IKOVA, EWB’s community driven program that promotes a “conservation culture,” human-wildlife coexistence, and healthy lifestyles; to speaking with nearby farming communities to understand their thoughts on wildlife movements and conflict animals. Besides this, EWB surveys wildlife populations in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola, and recently just concluded the Great Elephant Census, which counted all of the African elephants left in the elephant range. Spending this time with them has shown me that a small NGO has the power to accomplish so much to apply ecological knowledge to help with protecting ecological landscapes, human-wildlife coexistence and contribute to the knowledge of wildlife in this region.

As I wrap up my last week of interviews in Kasane, I am looking forward to speaking with the government officials in the capital and reflecting what I learn from my research back on the elephant caught in the fence.

The team had to keep the calf secure as she was transferred out of the fence line to the corridor to rejoin her family

I remember that I climbed in the back of the truck, standing just inches from the baby elephant’s head and monitored its breathing. A few minutes later, we unloaded the calf in the corridor. It looked at us and raised its trunk, then turned and headed towards a family herd of elephants just meters away, standing in the moonlight.

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